


Everything must end

by icemakestars



Series: Learning to love [4]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: E.N.D, M/M, Manga Spoilers, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 09:03:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemakestars/pseuds/icemakestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the battle against E.N.D, Gray is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice, as he alone is trusted with the task of killing the demon.</p><p> </p><p>Set when Natsu is 25 and Gray is 26</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything must end

**Author's Note:**

> The initial concept behind this work is based on @Vhazzrossze's work on tumblr. It's incredible, and you should totally check it out if you haven't already.

"Get off me!" Gray groaned, his fingers fanning out flat against Natsu's chest. Natsu laughed deeply, body rumbling where it pressed against Gray's. He had hitched his thigh over Gray's hip and swung himself across Gray, firmly pressing him into their shared mattress. Gray's eyes, still crusted from sleep, glared playfully at Natsu as he let his hands fall loosely onto Natsu's exposed back.

"You're heavy." Gray huffed, his fingertips trailing across any skin he could reach

"And you're an idiot." Natsu offered happily, swallowing up Gray's indignant protests by sealing their mouths together. The kiss was lazy with sleep and slow with fatigue, but Gray still hummed appreciatively into the warm mouth, letting his body fall into the familiar feeling of Natsu's touch. Only when Natsu's fingers began to trail enticingly over Gray's scalp did he pull back.  

Sometimes, Gray felt regret settle heavily in the pit of his stomach, reminding him of all of the missed opportunities they had wasted through the years. If it wasn't for their own stupidity, they could have had these blissfully content mornings years before now, and the thought was enough to make Gray flinch. At that moment, with Natsu smiling dazedly on his back, muscles rippling under tanned skin and green eyes chuckling when they searched to find Gray's own, he felt that familiar regret, and swallowed it down with a sigh.  

"You're still heavy." Gray complained, and Natsu rolled away from him with a laugh.

"And you're still an idiot!" He grinned.

"Says you, stupid pyro!"

"Perverted stripper!" Natsu clutched at Gray's hand, entwining their fingers together and squeezing hard.  

"I love you."

"Me too."

~'*'~

It had been three days since E.N.D attacked. They had been sitting in the guildhall, Erza cursing over the fruitless labour of their last failed mission and Lucy sobbing pathetically over her rent money, when Natsu's head had snapped back and he had begun fitting. Markings rose over his flesh, pink hair ghosting to an eerie shade of white. When Erza had rushed over to give him aid, Natsu had risen from the ground in a ghoulishly slow many, grabbing Erza by the throat and taking her with him. He threw her across the room effortlessly, broke Happy's wings when the cat had tried to fly for help, and... And that's when the screaming began.  

The days which followed were dark, and Gray's sleep-deprived mind could only recall them in broken fragments. Lucy... Lisanna... Happy... Gajeel... How many of his friends-  _their_ friends- had to die before this scenario was reached? Before Natsu's humanity returned and there was enough of  _him_  there to make a final decision.

Natsu shrieked, body convulsing on the floor as red saliva bubbled and frothed from his open mouth. Gray's stomach blanched when he realised- oh  _God_ \- that wasn't saliva, it was  _blood_.

"Gray, please!" Natsu's plea was ripped from his hoarse throat, eyes going wide as they searched to find Gray's.  

"No, I can't do it! I won't." Gray shook his head in blatant defiance, the tears feeling hot and heavy in his eyes. He ignored them, focusing only on the familiar callouses of Natsu's tanned hand where it mindlessly groped for his.

Gray fell to his knees, crouching down next to Natsu in an attempt to still his shuddering form.  

"Gray, please let me die as Natsu. Please, don't let it end when I'm still that... that...  _thing_." Natsu panted, bloody fingertips clutching desperately at Gray's skin. When Gray realised that it was not Natsu's blood which coated him, but the blood of his fallen comrades, he had to use the remainder of his will-power not to flinch away.

“I... I wanted to be with you, forever.” Gray gulped around his words. In other circumstances, Gray would have tasted the bitter iron of Erza’s sword before he admitted such a thing aloud. But there were deep gashes across his head, and his mind was light with a lack of blood. If there was ever a time to swallow his pride, it was now.

“Me too.” Natsu was crying now, tears tumbling down his scaly features as he buried himself into Gray's chest. Gray hugged him close, letting his own regret and despair drip onto the pale white hair beneath him.

"Gray... I'm so sorry." Whether he was apologising for the destruction he had already caused, or for what he was asking Gray to do, Gray didn't know. But the words were spoken in hardly a whisper, and it sounded so unmistakeably  _Natsu_  that it made Gray's chest ache.

"It's okay, Natsu." Gray soothed his words into Natsu's hair with his fingertips, but still Natsu flinched at the use of his name. His body arched upwards as the inky markings once again snaked their way over Natsu's chest. He was losing control again, and Gray was hit with the crippling realisation that he only had a few more minutes left to finish this,

"How can I- Natsu, I  _love_  you!" Gray yelled angrily, stunned that Natsu would ask him of all people to bring E.N.D down. Natsu flashed him a small smile, a sliver of lucidity and the happiness they had shared, and ran his fingers gentle over Gray's cheek.

"It has to be you, Gray. I love you too, so it has to be you." There was sadness in those eyes, an endless sadness which shocked Gray, but also set a determination in him which did not shock him; Natsu had always brought about the most severe emotions in him. When Gray had seen Natsu crying alone when they were children, he had decided then that he would always be there to protect Natsu, whatever the costs. Now, Gray was being asked to take care of Natsu, but the costs were Natsu's life. He felt bitter burning in his throat, and fought the urge to throw up.

"Will you do it?"  

"… Yes." Gray's voice was like iron, but his resolve was anything other than steely.

Normally when Gray used magic, he had to speak before the object formed. But this was different. Gray screwed his eyes shut and focused, imagining the words instead of saying them. Not only did he not want to hear himself say what he needed to, but his breath hitched so much that he did not trust his voice enough not to quiver. And he could not prolong this. He could not make it harder.

_Ice-make Devil Slayer's frozen lance._

Blue light shone from Gray's palm, ice leaping straight out and through Natsu's chest. Natsu's body jolted forward, and Gray had to pin the shuddering form against his chest to keep it still, sobbing quietly and in brutal earnest.

"Thank you... Gray..." Natsu's voice was soft and faint, but still undeniably  _his_. Gray wondered if that made things easier. Somehow, he didn't think it did.

The sun blinked blearily behind the swaying trees, and Gray continued to hold that still form to his body and wept until white hair faded back to pink, and a smile of content raised Natsu's features into something so  _normal_ , something Gray had woken up next to every day for years, which he found endearing and beautiful in the most fleeting sense, and Gray knew that he had been forgiven.


End file.
